President Correa’s election campaign was fined by the Consejo Nacional Electoral for a broadcast on government TV which featured a cover of the Beatles’ Hey Jude and displayed a Correa campaign poster int he background. Latinnews.com ($) writes:
Correa claimed that the campaign was being fined for “three seconds of a broadcast” in which a singer had appeared in front of a poster for Correa’s campaign. The CNE ruled that the Correa campaign had allowed its campaign to become associated with a public interest broadcast about the successes of the Correa administration.
The fine is $650, and will come out of the Correa advertising campaign account, which is managed by the CNE. To buy tv spots during the campaign period–which starts today and runs until the April 26 elections–the CNE acts as an intermediary, ensuring that the rates and accounting are within campaign finance law.
Much if not all of the campaign finance law is less than two months old, passed along with an electoral system reform in February. The legislative electoral system still uses open lists and allows voters to cast multiple preference votes for candidates, even spreading those votes across multiple electoral lists, but the districting has changed, with large districts split into smaller multi-member districts.